Slice of life.

Larry Burnside, Professional Party Animal

February 01, 1998|By Leslie Mann.

"Hi Laura, I'm Larry. Our names are alike, aren't they? You want white, orange or brown pop? OK. Hamburger or cheeseburger? A cheeseburger is a hamburger with cheese, you know." So goes the rapid-fire routine of Larry Burnside, the birthday party host for the McDonald's on Elgin's west side.

One child down, eight to go. In 10 minutes, Burnside (above) fills the children's orders, shakes their gifts, pens their name tags in their favorite colors and passes out game tokens. The birthday boy, 3-year-old Nathan Strain of rural Elgin, colors a placemat while his mother, Danae, greets guests.

"Promise to be noisy?" asks Burnside, 45, of Elgin, as he launches a scream-off contest. "My best party games are from my mom. I do a treasure hunt with POST-IT notes and a jelly bean guessing jar. The number of beans varies because I get hungry between parties."

"Larry has a following now," says the restaurant's owner, Marc Bear of St. Charles. "The number of parties is up since he started, and every one leads to more referrals."

Burnside's high-octane pace suits his schedule of up to 15 parties a week. "Weekends, they're back to back," he says. "Usually, the kids are ages 1 to 10, but I did one party for a 93-year-old lady who never had a birthday party before.

"The worst was when we had 22 4-year-olds, the birthday boy got a nosebleed and the ice cream machine froze up. But, usually, it's just a matter of being flexible. I'm referee and ringmaster."

Burnside took this post in 1995 after leaving a corporate job. Veteran party parents are surprised to see a man in the party hat, he says, because most of McDonald's party hosts are women.

Burnside says his training is his birth order. "I was the third of nine boys. My poor mother," he says.

When parents ask how he endures the noise, he asks, "What noise?"

In December, a group of McDonald's executives toured the restaurant to learn why it hosts more than its share of parties. They checked out the two-story, indoor playground with a tunnel maze, the game/reward system and the separate ledgers.